Die! Die! Die! pack plenty of attitude

Sometimes attending a concert can be dangerous, if you happen to be standing in the wrong place. Die! Die! Die! lead singer Andrew Wilson brandishes his musical intensity and vitriolic lyrics the same way he throws his microphone, his guitar and his body wildly around the stage. "I don't trust you," he screams in your face. "Brat," he spits. "Rat," he curses.

No surprise then that onlookers have been known to react with equal amounts of fury and abandon. While in England playing a night hosted by British music magazine NME Wilson says, "We had heaps of punks throwing beer on us and threatening to smash us if we didn't play another set. But at the same show there were about 50 other people throwing beer and threatening to smash us if we kept playing," he laughs.

To any grown-ups who've been there, bought the Buzzcocks T-shirt, then moshed their way through the first coming of punk, then post-punk, and then grunge — the late 70s through to the early 90s — this may all sound familiar.

Because Die! Die! Die! are one of what you might call a new wave of New Zealand bands taking inspiration from Joy Division, Black Flag and The Gordons as well as the likes of Green Day, Fugazi and Nirvana. And this melding of influences into a distinctive sound is paying off.

The band, who are on a national tour supporting Shihad, recently returned from overseas, where they recorded an album with alt-rock legend Steve Albini (who's recorded Nirvana, the Pixies and Sonic Youth in the past), played a showcase for celebrated indie record label capit and secured the release of two 7-inch singles in Britain as well as a headlining tour for when they return to Europe in September.

And Die! Die! Die! are not the only ones. Playing around New Zealand are plenty of new bands with equally modern, nostalgic tastes.

Overseas this movement in music, which began to emerge about two or three years ago in New York and London, has been given a lot of different names: post-punk, punk-funk, new wave, art rock, neo-retro and even — shock horror — a bit of an 80s revival.

So it's hardly surprising that no one can define what the music sounds like. Look into the international arbiters of this sound in any detail — such as Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, the Rapture, Interpol and the Killers — then look at the locals. This mainly-live-music scene includes everyone from Die! Die! Die! to The Fanatics, with their synthesiser dance sounds to Coco Solid and Erik Ultimate, a pair of old-school rappers who team dark modern humour with old-fashioned synthesiser beats.

Eventually the only conclusion you'll come to is that all they really have in common is a penchant for tight pants and a record collection that must feature plenty of 80s bands (and at least one Joy Division album). But what most have in common is more esoteric — it's all about attitude.

"If you compare us to the others, we are completely different," says rapper Erik Ultimate. "But like most of the bands you're talking about, there is a retro element. However, I think everyone is interpreting [older] things they like but in a contemporary way. So although we are doing a sort of electro-rap thing, we're doing it with a kind of punk ethic and we also do it in a modern context just like the other bands."

Brent Gleave, director of Capital Recordings who recently signed Die!Die!Die! and The Fanatics to his Wellington-based label has his theories about these young New Zealand musicians-with-attitude.

"There's a new wave of musicians coming through who are putting more urgency and drive into their sound," Gleave says. "Music is communicating at a much more urgent level." He believes this could be how, in the Pop Idol era, listeners have reacted to the perception that a lot of popular music, including hip-hop and dance music, is manufactured or commercial.

Meanwhile Andrew Tidball, who runs the Cheese On Toast website (www.cheeseontoast.co.nz) and produces Something On TV for Triangle television, both of which document the Auckland proponents of this movement, explains it: "For so long dance music has been quite dominant in youth culture. And as a result, there's also been a resurgence in rock. But people still want to dance. And there's also a bit of a punk ethic happening where people can just go and create something, make some music even if they're not trained musicians."

Then there's the clothes, the style, the fashions. It is something that's often mentioned in relation to these sorts of bands, even by rock critics, because there's more than a hint of the arty 80s poseur to some of the international acts, such as the Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

Faster than you can say New Romantics, the most street savvy fashion magazines, both here and overseas, have charted the course of this trend with its retro-hipster inclinations.

But what does this mean for the grown-ups — are you cursed to hear the same sort of music over and over again? Or should you just be very pleased that you didn't throw your old Cure records away?

Although many of the younger musicians don't know why they sound a lot like Joy Division, the Smiths, The Clash or early U2, others are happy to name-check their influences. But they'll usually throw some 90s-era surprises in there, too.

As a result, on one hand you'll get some bands that could easily be karaoke-ing an 80s party album. But on the other hand, the best of these new bands, have forgotten about one hit pop-wonders from the 80s and instead focused on the best of those bands that used to play on Radio With Pictures. And they're trying to come up with something new — a mixture of eras, genres and technologies along with a dash of their distinctive personalities and wardrobes.

"We've got to a point in popular music where everyone takes references from everywhere and it's considered valid," says Tidball says. "This is a hybrid of all things past. These days you'll get people going to a hip-hop gig one night, a rock gig the next and punk band the night after."

"And it's not just a rehash and it's not just about influences," says Gleave, who has faith in this new sound of New Zealand's suburbs, "because if a band is playing from their heart, they're putting their own touch on the sound.

"I'm hoping that maybe what's happening in New Zealand is that we're getting back to that point we saw in the late 70s and early 80s with Flying Nun, where there were so many great bands. And I think that's the best thing that could happen to New Zealand music creatively. That's why," he concludes enthusiastically, "I believe in these bands."